Farmers celebrate this year's bumper pumpkin crop

NEW HAMPTON — A year after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee destroyed much of the crop, local farmers have been blessed with plentiful pumpkins in 2012.

Comment

By NATHAN BROWN

recordonline.com

By NATHAN BROWN

Posted Oct. 8, 2012 at 2:00 AM
Updated Oct 8, 2012 at 12:55 PM

By NATHAN BROWN

Posted Oct. 8, 2012 at 2:00 AM
Updated Oct 8, 2012 at 12:55 PM

» Social News

NEW HAMPTON — A year after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee destroyed much of the crop, local farmers have been blessed with plentiful pumpkins in 2012.

"This year's been very good so far," said Lauren Plocharczyk, whose father owns Ricky's Produce on Maple Avenue.

New York's 2011 pumpkin crop was worth $23.6 million, compared to $35 million in 2010, according to statistics from the federal Department of Agriculture.

This year, though, Sharon Soons, owner of Soons Orchards and Farm Market, said the orchard has a lot of pumpkins in all sizes, including some big ones.

"Pretty much everyone got a good pumpkin crop this year," she said.

The best weather for pumpkins varies, depending on the field and a farm's location, said Plocharczyk; in the Black Dirt region of southern Orange County, you want a drier summer, which is what we had this year.

"They're very nice," she said of this year's pumpkin crop. "Very uniform, nice shape. They've been holding up very well."

Pumpkin mania starts in late September, gets busy in early October and continues through Halloween.

People use them to carve jack-o-lanterns or cook — and sometimes do both with the same pumpkin. Plocharczyk said some people buy a pumpkin for decoration in October, then cook it up for Thanksgiving.

Many people also like to roast and eat the seeds from a pumpkin after carving it into a jack-o-lantern, Soons said.

You can get pumpkins all this month at farms and other locations throughout the area.

At some farms, like Soons, you can pick them yourself. There also are several pumpkin festivals in the area, including today in Pine Island Park, and ones Oct. 20 in Pine Bush and at Hill-Hold Museum in Campbell Hall.